Match Group, Inc.

Good morning and welcome to the Match Group's third quarter 2021 earnings conference call. All participants will be in a listen-only mode. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Bill Archer, Head of Investor Relations and Corporate Development. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Operator, and good morning, everyone. Today's call will be led by CEO Sharjah Bae, and CFO and COO, Gary Swiller. They'll make a few brief remarks, and then we'll open it up for questions. Before we start, I need to remind everyone that during this call, we may discuss our outlook and future performance. These forward-looking statements may be preceded by words such as we expect, we believe, we anticipate, or similar statements. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, and our actual results could differ materially from the views expressed today. Some of these risks have been set forth in our earnings release and our periodic reports filed with the NCC. With that, I'd like to turn the call over to Shara.

Thank you, Bill. Good morning, and thank you all for joining the call today. Today, Gary and I are doing this call from a brand new office in New York. We had another strong quarter with over 25% year-over-year revenue growth, also a record EBITDA quarter for us. Tinder in particular showed real strength with not only 20 plus percent revenue growth, but also adding a record number of subscribers and payers this quarter. It is a historical high for Tinder, even higher than the quarter when Tinder Gold rolled out. I'm also excited to have our first woman CEO at Tinder. Renata has seamlessly taken over the helm there and the team hasn't missed a beat in their journey to transform the Tinder experience. Explore, which is a new surface area within the Tinder app rolled out globally a couple of weeks ago. It is a dynamic interface which allows users to connect with others through new experiences beyond the swipe that used to be Tinder. These experiences can be tailored by market. It keeps Tinder at the center of culture, gives users new reasons to keep coming back, increases engagement and activity. In fact, our successful Swipe Night series is coming to Tinder on Explore in a brand new series starting November 7th. Not only is it a very compelling Gen Z whodunit storyline, this time it has a bunch of features like fast chat built in that should amplify the conversations that follow on Tinder. Hinge had another great quarter across all metrics, doubling revenue again. The one business that is seeing an unexpected softness is the main revenue-driving app at HyperConnect, Azar. It's had a few months of headwinds in some key markets in Asia, Some of it is COVID, some of it is marketing performance, some product related delays. However, South Korea has finally opened up to international travel and our teams were able to meet over the last couple of weeks in person. We're working closely with them now on marketing to product roadmap in order to reverse the trends. I am extremely optimistic about this team and technology asset as a long-term value creator for our portfolio, especially as we enter what we described in the shareholder letter as the next phase of Match Group's evolution in the dating category. In fact, my long-term thesis was further validated in the last couple of weeks when the team there walked me through a new concept, their beta testing on some college campuses in Seoul. It's called Singletown. It is a platform where your digital selves in the form of real-time audio-powered avatars can serendipitously meet others in virtual spaces like a bar or you can sit down with someone in a park bench to have a one-on-one or a group conversation. There is, for instance, a piano bar where people's digital selves are gathering around. but they're actually playing their pianos at home and jamming with others. You can overhear conversations, join conversations. You can tap into the digital avatars to see more of their profiles. And you have basically a richer set of signals to help connect with someone. It is metaverse experiences coming to life in a way that is transformative to how people meet and get to know each other on a dating or social discovery platform. and is much more akin to how people interact in the real world. It is super early, but we are seeing some encouraging early signals in terms of engagement among Gen Z in Seoul. Already, the average daily time spent is about an hour and growing. Subcultures are forming. It is resonating with both genders. And as we talked about in our letter, This next phase of dating apps in particular is going to be all about richer, more organic, and more akin to real life ways of discovering, meeting, and getting to know people. Technology is finally getting there, and this underlying technology platform HyperConnect has built, that power single town, has been built in a way that it can be leveraged by other platforms easily. So my long-term view on what this talented team and technology brings to the portfolio is ever stronger. Finally, based on everything we're hearing and seeing, this cuffing season should be a strong one as people are ready to shake off the COVID malaise and get out there and date and meet. It's also shaping up to be one of the busiest wedding seasons. I feel good about a re-energized and much more social holiday season. These social interactions are incredibly important for our collective mental health and well-being. So I, for one, am rooting for a hell of a holiday season and a post-holiday peak season for us as we enter the new year. And with that, I will hand it over to Gary to provide some more color on the quarter.